NAME

DESCRIPTION

cpufreqd.conf is a simple text file containing rules to be used by
cpufreqd(1).cpufreqd.conf is divided into sections enclosed in tags (eg.:
[General][/General]). You need at least one [General] section and one
or more [Profile] and [Rule] sections. Each [Rule] depends on
previously defined [Profile] subsections. Some plugins also require a
proper configuration section.
Some notes to better understand how to write appropriate rules:
- the score of a rule is made up of the percentage of entries
that match the current system state as reported by plugins + the
number of matching entries. In this way even a single-entry
rule can reach 100% but more accurate rules are preferred.
- in case of 2 or more rules having the same score the first one
(as found in the configuration file) or the one already applied
if applicable is kept and set.
- each directive is handled by a single plugin that will
determine if the state described matches the current system
state.
- if no rule matches the current system status, no action is
performed.
What to keep in mind when writing rules:
- the -V switch is (hopefully) your friend, test your
configuration slightly increasing cpufreqd verbosity and look
what happens (-V6 will report rules' scores, -V7 will report
which entry matched and which not).
- if you want a rule to be preferred over another just describe
the system state more accurately.
A good approach to write cpufreqd rules is to first describe the basic
parameters you want for a general usage (e.g.: define at least an
"AC-on" rule and an "AC-off" rule), then proceed and describe all the
special cases by describing the system state more accurately (e.g.:
"AC-off but running mplayer" or "AC-on but temperature too hot").
Note that no white space is allowed between name and value pairs.
Characters after a '#' are considered comments and ignored.

SECTIONS

Acceptable configuration tokens and values include:
[General]poll_interval
A float larger than 0.15, measures the interval between system
status reading in seconds. Note: the lower bound has been set in
order to try to avoid trashing your system if using a too low
value. (default: 1.0)
enable_plugins
A list of plugins separated by comma. As of cpufreqd 2.1.0 this
option is useless, cpufreqd will load all available plugins and
remove those remaining unused after the configuration file is
read.
pidfile
Specifies the file to write as its process identification file.
(default: /var/run/cpufreqd.pid)
enable_remote
Make cpufreqd open a local UNIX socket and listen for command to
be executed. See cpufreqd-set(1) and cpufreqd-set(1) for two
very simple clients.
remote_group
Make the socket readable and writeable to the specified group.
Useful to allow simple users to tweak cpufreqd with cpufreqd-set
and cpufreqd-get.
double_check
Make cpufreqd check if the requested policy has been correctly
applied by re-reading the corresponding kernel attributes.
verbosity
Verbosity level from 0 (less verbose) to 7 (most verbose), the
default value only prints warning/error/critical messages.
(default: 4)
[Profile]name An arbitrary and unique name for your profile. [REQUIRED]
minfreq
An integer value representing the minimum frequency to set in
/proc/cpufreq. This value can be both a percentage of the CPU
full capacity or frequency in kHz. [REQUIRED]
maxfreq
An integer value representing the maximum frequency to set. This
value can be both a percentage of the CPU full capacity or
frequency in kHz. [REQUIRED]
policy Can be any of the available governor's name as shown in
/sys/devices/.../cpufreq/scaling_available_governors, this means
that if you compiled governors as modules in your kernel, you
need to load them before running cpufreqd. [REQUIRED]
otherpluginentries
Other Profile directives are available according to the enabled
plugins.
[Rule]name An arbitrary and unique name for your rule. [REQUIRED]
profile
A character string that must match a [Profile] section name
property. A Rule can also associate profiles to single cpus
providing a list of the format CPU%d:%s separated by semicolons
(";"), e.g.: profile=CPU0:profile0;CPU1:profile1. The keyword
"ALL" can be used to indicate that all cpus must have the
profile applied. The "ALL" keyword has a lower priority so you
can mix up CPU%d and ALL meaning that if no specific profile is
supplied, the "ALL" one will be used. [REQUIRED]
otherpluginentries
Other Rule directives are available according to the enabled
plugins.

PLUGINS

Plugins extend cpufreqd in order to be able to cope with the most
exotic system paramters. Currently available plugins are listed below
along with the configration directives they provide and their
configuration section description if available.
acpiplugin
This plugin includes all the acpi monitoring functionalities previously
available as separate plugins. It allows monitoring battery,
temperature, ac and interacting with acpid to immediately react on ACPI
events.
Section[acpi]acpid_socket The path to Acpid open socket (default:
/var/run/acpid.socket). When available cpufreqd will wake up
immediately upon event arrival and battery and ac status updates
are forced.
battery_update_interval
The number of seconds that have to elapse before polling
the battery again. In such period the battery value will
be estimated based on reported power consumption
(default: 30).
battery_interval
The rule will have a higher score if battery percentage is
between the values provided. Can be of the form %d-%d or simply
%d for a fixed value (e.g.: battery_interval=10-100) or %s:%d-%d
or %s:%d where the string represents the battery name that must
match (look at 'ls /proc/acpi/battery' for available names).
ac Can be on or off. The rule will have a higher score if the A/C
adapter is on or off as defined in this setting.
acpi_temperature
The rule will have a higher score if the temperature percentage
corresponds to the provided values. Can be of the form %d-%d or
simply %d for a fixed value (e.g.: acpi_temperature=10-100) or
%s:%d-%d or %s:%d where the string represents the thermal zone
name that must match (look at 'ls /proc/acpi/thermal_zone' for
available names).
apmplugin
Monitors values reported by the APM subsystem. Available Rule entries:
ac Can be on or off. The rule will have a higher score if the A/C
adapter is on or off as defined in this setting.
battery_interval
The rule will have a higher score if battery percentage is
between the values provided. Must be of the form %d-%d (e.g.:
battery_interval=10-100).
pmuplugin
Monitors values reported by the PMU subsystem. Available Rule entries:
ac Can be on or off. The rule will have a higher score if the A/C
adapter is on or off as defined in this setting.
battery_interval
The rule will have a higher score if battery percentage is
between the values provided. Must be of the form %d-%d (e.g.:
battery_interval=10-100).
tauplugin
Support for the Thermal Assist Unit to read the CPU temperature from
/proc/cpuinfo.
tau_temperature
The rule will have a higher score if the temperature is between
the values provided. Must be of the form %d-%d (e.g.:
tau_temperature=30-60).
cpuplugin
Monitors the cpu usage. Available Rule entries:
cpu_interval
The rule will have a higher score if cpu usage is between the
values provided. Must be of the form %d-%d (e.g.:
cpu_interval=10-100) or %d:%d-%d to monitor a specific cpu in
SMP/SMT systems (e.g.: cpu_interval=1:50-100). Moreover you can
combine multiple cpus giving multiple intervals on the same line
separated by semicolon (';'), if any of them matches the full
directive will match (e.g.: cpu_interval=0:50-100;1:0-60).
Additionally you can use the strings "ALL" and "ANY" to request
that all cpus or any cpu matches respectively (e.g.:
cpu_interval=ANY:50-100). It is possible to specify the scale
to calculate niced processes cpu usage with the form %d-%d,%f or
%d:%d-%d,%f (e.g.: cpu_interval=1:70-100,1.5), default is 3, in
this way niced processes will be considered 1/3 of their real
value. Rules with overlapping cpu_intervals are allowed.
execplugin
Executes command on Rule/Profile selection. Available Rule and Profile
entries:
exec_preexec_post
You can give commands that you want to be executed when a Rule
or Profile is applied. As the names suggest, exec_pre will be
run before a Rule or Profile is applied, exec_post will be run
after.
programsplugin
Monitors active processes. Available entries:
programs
The rule will have a higher score if one of the listed processes
is running. This is a comma separated list. No white
space is allowed between values. cpufreqd will try to match
each process name with the configured process list. If you need
to match against program from a spe- cific location you have to
supply the full path as search pattern.
nforce2_atxp1plugin
Allows you to change Vcore of the CPU on the fly if you own a NForce2
board with atxp1 voltage regulator (and its module loaded). The use of
this plugin will allow a new Profile directive and requires a
configuration section.
Section[nforce2_atxp1]vcore_path Defines the interface file created by atxp1 module
which will be used to change Vcore.
vcore_default As NForce2 boards only initialize the atxp1 on
power-on, you need to put back default Vcore before reboot. This
value will be used to set Vcore on exit.
vcore Will set Vcore to this value (given in mV) when the
corresponding Profile is applied. Due to safety reasons range is
limited from 1200 to 1850.
nvclockplugin
Allows you to tweak the core an memory clock for NVidia cards. The use
of this plugin will allow new Profile directives. NOTE:youMUSTusethispluginONLYwithsupportedcards. See also the nvclock homepage
(http://www.linuxhardware.org/nvclock).
nv_core
Sets the core clock in MHz. Must be of the form %d:%d where the
first integer represents the card number, the second the desired
frequency in MHz.
nv_mem Sets the memory clock in MHz. Must be of the form %d:%d where
the first integer represents the card number, the second the
desired frequency in MHz.
sensorsplugin
Allows you to specify lm-sensors features to watch, see `sensors -u' to
find out which sensors are available on your system. A configuration
section is also available to tell cpufreqd which sensors.conf file to
use. If not specified it will take the first on the default locations.
Section[sensors_plugin]sensors_conf Define this directive to the sensors.conf file you
want cpufreqd to use to load the sensors library.
sensor The rule will have a higher score if the given sensor feature
reports a value between the two defined. Must be of the form
%s:%f-%f where the string represents the feature name or label
and the two decimal numbers the interval into which the
directive is valid (e.g.: sensor=temp1:0-50).
governor_parametersplugin
Allows you to specify parameters for governors in [Profile] sections.
Currently only the `ondemand' and `conservative' governors support
parameters. The description of the parameters below is basically a
summary of the information found in the file `governors.txt' in the
documentation of kernel versions 2.6.16 or later.
sampling_rate
How often the governor checks the CPU usage. Specify in micro-
seconds or percentage of mimimum and maximum available values.
Supported suffixes: `%' for a percentage, `s' for a value in
seconds, `m' for a value in milli-seconds, or `u' for a value in
micro-seconds (the default),
up_threshold
What the average CPU usage needs be at least to make the
governor decide to switch to a higher frequency. Though the
value is interpreted as percentage by the governor, you should
not append a `%' in cpufreqd.conf for this parameter.
down_threshold (`conservative' governor only)
What the average CPU usage needs be at most to make the governor
decide to switch to a lower frequency. This is the opposite of
up_threshold (see above).
sampling_down_factor
How quickly the frequency will be decreased in respect to how
quickly it will be increased. E.g. when set to 5, the frequency
will go down 5 times `less easy' than it will go up.
ignore_nice,ignore_nice_load
Whether `nice' processes should be considered as CPU usage by
the governor. This is a boolean value (e.g. value is either 0
or 1). When set to 1 `nice' processes will not be counted as
CPU usage by the governor. Note: `ignore_nice' was renamed to
`ignore_nice_load' in kernel version 2.6.16. Both names are
accepted in cpufreqd.conf, regardless the version of the running
kernel.
freq_step (`conservative' governor only)
How much the frequency should be changed (up or down) each time
the governor decides the frequency should go up or down. The
value is the percentage of the maximum available frequency you
want the frequency to increase or decrease each time. The
actual frequency your CPU runs at will only change when the
desired frequency reaches the next available frequency. Though
the value is interpreted as percentage by the governor, you
should not append a `%' in cpufreqd.conf for this parameter.